The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 17, 2005
Filed:
Jun. 13, 2003
Applicants:
Ryuichiro Takamatsu, Osaka, JP;
Yoshinori Senju, Saga, JP;
Inventors:
Ryuichiro Takamatsu, Osaka, JP;
Yoshinori Senju, Saga, JP;
Assignee:
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., Osaka, JP;
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G03G015/00 ; G03G015/08 ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
Abstract
An image forming apparatus and toner-consumption-estimation method that can accurately estimate the amount of consumed toner regardless of the type of image. A printing-pixel-counting unit counts from input image data the number of printing pixels. Also, an edge-counting unit similarly counts from the input image data the number of edges being boundaries between the printing pixels and blank pixels. A consumption-estimation unit then calculates the amount of consumed toner based on the counted number of printing pixels and the number of edges.